Shawabty of Queen Masalaye

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This is a group of thirty-three shawabty fragments belonging to Queen Masalaye. It includes six leg and foot fragments of which four are in two pieces, eighteen foot fragments of which one is in four pieces and one is in two pieces, and nine lower leg and foot fragments of which three are in two...

This is a group of thirty-three shawabty fragments belonging to Queen Masalaye. It includes six leg and foot fragments of which four are in two pieces, eighteen foot fragments of which one is in four pieces and one is in two pieces, and nine lower leg and foot fragments of which three are in two pieces. When complete, the female figure wears a tripartite wig. This mummiform shape does not have a back pillar or base. There are seven horizontal lines of incised text on the back of the figure starting from the top of the head, and the bottom three encircle the legs. The text is framed. The arms are not crossed and the hands are positioned right above left. In each hand the figure holds a hoe. In addition the left hand holds a cord but no seed bag. The objects are very worn.
The ancient Nubians included shawabtys in their tombs only in the Napatan Period, about 750–270 B.C. These funerary figurines are based on Egyptian shawabtys, but differ from them in many features of their iconography. For instance, the known Nubian examples are only from royal tombs. Also, they have unique texts, implements, poses and are known to have the largest number of shawabtys included in one tomb. Their function, it is assumed, was the same as that of the Egyptian shawabty, namely to magically animate in the Afterlife in order to act as a proxy for the deceased when called upon to tend to field labor or other tasks. This expressed purpose was sometimes written on the shawabty itself in the form of a "Shawabty Spell," of which versions of various lengths are known. Shorter shawabty inscriptions could also just identify the deceased by name and, when applicable, title(s). However, many shawabtys carry no text at all. The ideal number of such figurines to include in a tomb or burial seems to have varied during different time periods.

Provenance

From Nubia (Sudan), Nuri, Pyramid 23 (tomb of Queen Masalaye). 1917: excavated by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; assigned to the MFA in the division of finds by the government of the Sudan.